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Photo organizers, locally installed, Windows:
Zoner Photo Studio
xnView
Nero Mediahome
Windows Live Photo Gallery
Media Pro (Not Freeware)
ACDSee (Not Freeware>
Corel Aftershot (Not Freeware)

Photo editors, browser based:
Pixlr
Polarr
Fotor
iPiccy

Image Hosting:
Piwigo (free to self-host; first party hosting available)
Zenphoto (free to self-host; third party hosting available)
JuiceBox (freemium; self-hosted only)
Flickr
Amazon Prime Photos (you have to be Prime)

Okay, I'm tired of adding links...but depending on what functions of Picasa you're looking to replace, there are plenty of alternatives.

Uuuuhhhh...You DO know that if all you want is the burner Nero will let you have it for free, yes? Or that if you want an even more simple interface there are great free choices such as IMGBurn which you can even install with a one click unattended installation thanks to Ninite that will install nearly all the major apps folks need/want, like FF,.NET/Flash/Silerlight/Java, even IM, AV, and Media Players, all in an interface so simple even your grandma can use it?

So while the full Nero may not be YOUR cup of tea, there are enough folks buying it that Nero thinks it is the correct way to go for their customers, but they are still nice enough to offer the basic version for $0. And just because you think it is "bloated" doesn't mean the masses do. Just look at home pages, which working PC repair I can tell you the average Joe by a good 99 out of 100 have set to this instead of this because they actually LIKE it that way!

By what measure of success? Effectiveness, sure. But what is the market share of all the Linux distros put together? What is the ratio of Windows to Linux boxes globally or in the US?

How do you define success? Apparently for you, at least in this context, it's market share. That's a bit spurious considering the fact that Linux is Free. What is the market share of Linux anyway? Probably a lot higher than you realize. Oh, you thought only desktop computers ran operating systems? Ever heard of Tivo? Android? Routers? Embedded systems? Servers? I'll bet if you put every device that runs Linux vs. every device that runs Windows you might be surprised about the "ratio of Windows to Linux boxes globally". Besides, Ferrari has low market share. They're a success right?

Says you. You're omitting how many devices don't work on Linux due to a lack of drivers or simple inoperability with Linux. It's improving, but there's a long way to go.

Linux supports more peripherals than OSX; I don't see you bringing that up? You wouldn't happen to have an agenda would you? Besides, I've installed quite a few Linux boxes in my day. It's the very rare exception that I find a device that doesn't just work out of the box. Contrast this with literally every other operating system ever made. And everytime that has happened, I waited a few months for the next kernel update and it did work. A lot of hardware actually works better in Linux. For example, my Verizon USB aircard. In Windows, you have to wait over 30 seconds for it to do its thing and connect and it disconnects requiring pulling it out and reinserting it about once an hour. On Linux, it connects in about 5 seconds and works perfectly for as long as you want. Funny story, I was at my brother's house a couple of weeks back and his Windows 7 box bluescreened so many times, I lost count. Finally, I was like, dude, what does the error say when it crashes? Come to find out the problem was the USB network adapter he had was crashing his box. Plugged it into my netbook running Ubuntu 9.10 and it worked perfectly.

The main flaw i find in Linux is the opposite. It's small because it's small. Developers don't want to double their efforts to sell to a handful of neck beards.

I don't see Linux's smallness as a flaw. Actually, that tends to increase the signal to noise ratio quite a bit. There are quite a few quality software projects that only develop for Linux and/or OSX and refuse to port to Windows because of the inevitable flood of clueless users that would pull in thus swamping the project in handholding. This is a good example. Very high quality software.

As for the "handful of neck beards" comment, didn't you say something about the supposed childish and condescending tone of the GP? Besides, there are quite a few commercial projects that develop for Linux. But, if you stop and think about it, why would there be large amounts of commercial Linux development in any case? One of the possible reasons developing commercial software is such a niche for Linux is that practically anything you need is in the repositories anyway. And quite a bit of Free sofware spanks the commercial alternatives. K3B smokes Nero. Pidgin smokes YIM, AIM, and MSN Messenger. Firefox and Chrome smoke IE, Opera, Safari, what-have-you. And for the stuff where the Free stuff isn't as good as the proprietary bits, it's still pretty good. OpenOffice is pretty good, GIMP is pretty good, Eclipse is pretty good. Why pay for proprietary software when my needs are already met for free?

Wine isn't there either. i use as much FOSS as i can.

That

will there ever be a way to watch blue-ray movies legally on a Linux computer?

Yup, there already is a version of PowerDVD for Linux that can play Blu-Ray disks. Available in the Canonical Store (Ubuntu Linux, 32 Bit only).

Debian 5 is apparently (haven't tried this yet) one step ahead of Ubuntu in a related area however: It natively supports Blu-ray data disks (like, for backups, and so on). On Ubuntu, you have to use either some command-line tools or get Nero 3 for Linux.

You see, there's some stuff if you're looking! ;)

BTW, I'm posting this from Debian 5. Yay! As a developer, I welcome the fully functional version of the Anjuta IDE, and some other fun stuff! :)

What's a Google? Around 10^100
What's a Yahoo!? A crude or boorish person.
What's a WinAmp? Some sort of political blog.
What's a Slashdot? HALTING ERROR
What's a Firefox? A group of crop circle enthusiasts.
What's an eBay? An employment agency.
What's a NewEgg? Another political forum, this one invite only.
What's a Lightwave? Some sort of fan-fic blog.
What's a Nero? Nero (Nero Claudius Caesar) was born in 37 A.D. and died in 68 A.D. (pp. 154)
What's an Outlook Express? Some sort of torture device.
What's a Visual Studio? A far more subtle tourture device.
What's an AutoCAD? An employment agency.

Really, you're on the net, there's no excuse for not knowing this stuff.

eh...

I bought a new laptop last week which arrived yesterday (Asus G1S-A1, pre-installed with Vista). Nero also came pre-installed and was one of the 3 disks I received with the laptop.

Heck, the screenshow on the website for Nero 8 Ultra Edition shows it running in Vista: http://www.nero.com/enu/nero8-introduction.html, and the bulletpoints say "Optimized for Windows Vista®".

I'm not saying I like Vista or anything (will be attempting to replace Vista with XP on the laptop this weekend), but your anecdote doesn't seem to hold water.

This isn't exactly about KDE, but I have seriously considered moving to linux simply for the K3B CD/DVD all-in-one application. There just doesn't seem to be any real substitute in Windows. The best you can hope for is to use several programs in combination with each other.

well, K3B takes care of all my disc burning needs, but have you tried Nero Linux? dunno how it compares to the Windows version since I haven't used it ever since v5.9 or so, but it may be a suitable "replacement" for you, and it's fairly cheap too.

This may be true for DVD and other standard-definition video formats. But high-definition formats such as HD DVD and especially Blu-ray Disc generally have tighter compliance and robustness [wikipedia.org] requirements. I don't see how a Free kernel on commodity hardware can conform to these.

While the kernel is open source drivers and software don't have to be. For instance Nero Linux, which supports both Blu-ray and HD DVDs, isn't. Other software capable:

• High-def DVD SoC supports HD-DVD, BlueRay, Linux
• Playing HD DVD On Linux. It seems everything's in place to play your HD DVD discs in Linux. The kernel supports the UDF filesystem, the recently released BackupHDDVD C++ for Linux can decrypt the content, and the latest VLC and Mplayer can play it.

You know, I think that gross margin is really GROSS. Can you believe how much money they are charging for these burners? What a waste. Although they do have to recover some of the costs, but they are pricing themselves out of the market.

Hold out till the price comes down. You don't need 45gigs toss away storage... which is what these are, really. Just get external hard drives and keep swapping, or use Nero Ultimate Enhanced for the DVD set options and encrypted backups. What a great product that is! ZOMG

Depends on your definition of paying through the nose. It's not like the new version is just an update that only has Vista Support. It also has support for a lot of new technologies, and some media center capabilities. Feature List. (PDF).

-Ed

Sell? I suppose it might be, though I have no idea> <a href="http://www.exit1.org/dvdrip/">why</a>.

Meanwhile, the site you linked me to just says that stuff isn't allowed in your carry-on. It can be in your checked luggage, no problem. That's too inconvenient for you?

Any chance these are DRM issues? I'm not too familiar with Windows software any more, but these are all issues with media devices, no? The ones you mention (Nero, some recording program, a web cam, photo software) seem to all fall in the audio/video category just exactly the things that DRM is designed to control.

Of course, as others have suggested, they just may not yet have released the driver updates for your hardware. However, in the case of Nero, it's website touts the new Vista-ready version and encourages current users to upgrade. http://ww2.nero.com/enu/index.html Did you upgrade your non-working applications to Vista-ready versions? I'd guess that something like Nero would have to use the DRM subsystem in Vista when it needs to access a CD or DVD writer. (If that's not true, then I don't understand how the combined hardware/software DRM system works. Seems to me disc writers are precisely the type of device you'd want to enforce controls over in a DRM'ed system. Otherwise, what's the point?)

I so glad I don't use proprietary software any more or run an operating system that enforces DRM rules.

In >20 years how many times has Dvorak actually been right?

Also, last I checked, there is already proprietary software for Linux already and GPL hasn't stopped them due to any viral "tainting."

(Yeah I know one of those is going GPL soon but isn't yet)

Then there are those which skirt the GPL and where the legality is questionable, such as NVidia's and ATI's video drivers.

Then I'd need to determine if all of my hardware actually supports Linux

If I get past the hardware hurdle then I'd need to do some research on how to install it. What new commands do I need to learn? how do I install hardware drivers (since they're not just plug and play like Windows where everything auto-magic-ly works). Is there a specific order I need to get my hardware up and running? What happens if I run into problems? I need to find places where can I get help. How do I get online to ask for help if Linux isn't up and running yet? Even if I have a 2nd computer how do I transfer data between the two if one doesn't have drivers for the communication outlets (NIC, CD, etc.) yet?

Now I need to find alternative software, Open Office instead of MS office, GIMP instead of Photoshop, etc. etc. etc. some are apparent others I'm not so sure. I do a whole lot of burning do they make Nero for Linux? what about video editing? I do that on occasion. What kind of Micro-controller tools are available or will I have to dual boot windows just to flash my pic chips and debug/compile my MCU code?

it should be "eng" - http://www.nero.com/eng/NeroLINUX.html

Nero is actually available for Linux. (replace "deu" in the link for "en" for the english page that doesn't display at all for me.

Disenchanted and those who do not want to shell out hundreds of dollars for a crappy OS. For work I needed to by a copy of XP Pro because of a compiler and other tools that were old and wouldn't run under Linux (using Crossover/Wine). I shuttered when I paid $78 for XP Pro and kept saying "it's a tax deduction" to justify it.
For most people however, using their email and word processing, photo software, digital cameras, multimedia CD/DVD burning is all they need an Ubuntu works. There is a lot of DVD and CD burning software out there. I just installed Nero for Linux and it's great! The only thing really missing is a good DVD authoring program. QDVD author tries to put a GUI front-end on DVD author, but it sucks.

The next step for Ubuntu is to get application developers to crank out some decent multimedia software packages. At that point I can't see why any "normal" user would want to use Windows.

they are the first commercial software vendor to deliver a Linux application for the masses (acrobat reader doesn't count guys..)

Off the top of my head...

Netscape
Nero Burning ROM
and Wordperfect 2000 from Corel (no longer available).

These are all applications "for the masses" that are/were available for Linux.

• mIRC - the best IRC client, although this isn't necessarily saying much. The (unlicensed) Excursion variant of it adds some good features.
• AutoGK - great free software for making DVD-rips in DivX or XviD.
• Daemon Tools - CD/DVD-ROM emulator/image mounter with anti-DRM features.
• Real Alternative/Media Player Classic - like many other suggestions here, this one corrects a problem with Windows, namely the super-heavy, overcomplicated new Windows Media Player. This one has a classic look and support for Real media files, thus also solving the problem of the even worse Realplayer.
• Nero Burning ROM - like Toast only it doesn't make that stupid toaster sound.
• The GodFather - audio file manager/tagger with support for retrieving tags and cover images from a number of online databases.

I recommend these programs to all my co-workers, friends and family.
BlueFrog - Fight spam with the Blue Community
DefilerPak - Video/Audio Codec Pak
FireFox - IE replacement
Foobar2000 - Audio Player
MyUninstaller - ADD/Remove Programs alternative
Nero - CD/DVD burning software
NOD32 - Very fast and accurate Virus Scanner
Thunderbird - Outlook Express Replacement
Treewalk DNS - Local caching DNS
Trillian - Many IM Clients in One
UltraEdit32 - Best Windows Text Editor (check out column mode)
UltraMon - If you multiple monitors this program is great
Zoomplayer - DVD/Media player

My pants have legitimate uses that do not infringe on your pants patent(s) and so I have every right to sell them. I could even counter sue you in that your pants *could* be used in the ("dual boot"!) manner patented by myself. My justification here would include your earlier comment: "It's not how the customer finally uses it. It's how it is "intended" to be used. And how it's intended is up to the one holding the patent." Lawyers win again.

(damn, this is getting wierd)

666 was just a hebrew code for Nero Caesar. Unless someone clones Nero and he takes over the world, regulating all commerce, the "Mark of the Beast" is a false prophecy.

Oh noes! Nero's back! (With new and improved DVD writing capability! Albeit a bit overpriced and bloated...)

Nero Burnrights

I realize that not everyone with Windows will have Nero, but it's a common solution to a common problem.

I'll second this recommendation. I've had a series2 for about 3 years now and have been extremely happy with it. Out of the box it works just fine. No need to hack it if you don't want to. It is easy enough that your grandma could figure it out - which may seem like the TiVo isn't for the hardcore geek. The simplicity is the beauty of the whole thing. I spend most of my day dealing with computers - windoze, linux, clients, servers, code, the list goes on - something always needs fixed or updated or reinstalled. I don't want to fight with my fracking television too.

The only "hack" I've applied is the 30-second skip. And that is just S-P-S-30-S on the remote (Do it while an already recorded show is playing - tends to work better there.) Has to be done after power failures and reboots, but those don't happen very often. A bunch of major software updates later TiVo has left that "feature" in, albeit disabled by default. I think someone else mentioned tivocommunity. A great resource. Figured out how to upgrade my 40GB to 80GB there - was a piece of cake (I still have the 40GB drive intact just in case the drive I put in there blows up.) The only hacking advice I would add is that if you hack your TiVo badly, you'll bork the OS and it won't be able to pull service updates, or worse - guide data.

Like zerocool^ said, you can grab Tivo2Go from tivo's website free (I think someone wrote a java clone) and download as much as you want to your PC. Nvidia has a codec you can buy for like 20$ (not sure why T2go doesn't come with one) that lets you burn DVDs with the application of your choice. I think there is Sonic something or other which is a burning app and a codec in one package. IIRC it is made by Roxio, so I stayed away from it. I won't tell you what to do, but I would suggest not P2P'ng the files as a matter of principle. The MPAA and RIAA are enough of a pain in the ass. They don't need any more excuses to go after things like TiVo, and it discourages content providers from partnering with DVR makers if they feel they're just getting ripped off.

Downsides: get a newer one - and hope it has USB2 or built-in ethernet. Transferring a show to or from the PC (I think USB1 is my issue) takes a long time - about 85-90% of the show's length. If you decide to get a wireless adapter, triple check to make sure it is the right one. One letter difference in the adapter's model and it is useless. Over three years, the TiVo unit has gotten progressively slower to respond - a lot of people have complained about this and it seems to be due to the 7.x software updates. No idea what, if anything, TiVo is doing about it. It is annoying sometimes, but not unbearable.

Upsides of TiVo: TivoCentral: schedule programs remotely without putting a hole in your firewall. It definitely "just works" - which is why I have avoided MythTV, WindowsMC, etc - no need - my TiVo makes me happy. Now if only finding a g/f were this easy ... talk about vaporware, geez.

.. but I really dislike all the "managers", picasa, nero, hell, I _stopped_ using ACDSee when it became to cluttered (in favor of irfanview ofcourse).

Frankly I just dont see the advantage of having one heavyloading utility for each aspect of your work. Explorer does it's work, if I wanted more power on my workstations I'd be slapping Linux on them where I have amazing powers at my tooltip with some help by perl and bash.

And for the shameless plugging of his own article I can only say: tsk tsk.

I have always felt that Linux is a nice operating system (for hobbyists and geeks), but there are some areas where it is seriously lacking, especially when compared to its main competitor, Microsoft Windows.

* File sharing. Windows has long been superior when it comes to making large amounts of files available to third parties. Even early versions of Windows automatically detected and made available all directories thanks to the built in NetBIOS-powered file sharing support. But Microsoft has realized that this technology is inherently limited and has added even better file sharing support to its Windows XP operating system. Universal Plug and Play will make it possible to literally access any file, from any device! I think universal file sharing support needs to be built into the Linux kernel soon.

* Intelligent agents. With innovations like Clippy, the talking paperclip and Microsoft Bob, Microsoft has always tried to make life easier for its customers. With Outlook and Outlook Express, Microsoft has built a framework for developers to create even smarter agents. Especially popular agents include "Sircam", which automatically asks the users' friends for advice on files he is working on and the "Hybris" agent, which is a self-replicating copy of a humorous take on "Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves" (the real story!). Microsoft is working on expanding this P2P technology to its web servers. This project is still in the beta stage, thus the name "Code Red". The next versions will be called "Code Yellow" and "Code Green".

* Version numbers. Linux has real naming problems. What's the difference between a 2.4.19 and a 2.2.17 kernel anyway? And what's with those odd and even numbers? Microsoft has always had clear and sophisticated naming/versioning policies. For example, Windows 95 was named Windows 95 because it was released in 1995. Windows 98 was released three years later, and so on. Windows XP brought a whole new "experience" to the user, therefore the name. I suggest that the next Linux kernel releases be called Linux 03, Linux 04, Linux 04.5 (OSR1),
Linux 04.7B (OSR2 SP4 OEM), Linux 2005 and Linux VD (Valentine's Day edition). Furthermore, remember how Microsoft named every upcoming version of Windows after some Egyptian city? Cairo, Chicago and so on. I think that the development kernels should be named after Spanish cities to celebrate Linux' Spanish origins. Linux Milano or Linux Rome anyone?

* Multi-User Support. This has always been one of Microsoft's strong sides, especially in the Windows 95/98 variants, where passwords were completely unnecessary. Microsoft has made the right decision by not bothering the user
with a distinction between "normal" and "root" users too much -- practice has shown that average users can be trusted to act responsibly and in full awareness of the potential consequences of their actions. After all, if your operating system doesn't trust you, why should you trust it? (To be fair, Linux is making some progress here with the Lindows distribution, where users are always running as root.)

With Windows XP, Microsoft has again improved multi-user support. Not only does Windows XP come with a large library of user pictures that are displayed on the login screen, such as a guitar and a flower, i

Fact is that this article was obviously meant to be somewhat comical, some things within Linux definitely limit its adoption by mainstream computer users. BTW - I'm a Windows Admin @ work, and a Debian fan/user @ home, So please don't bash me for having an opinion of why the average everyday wal-mart/kmart/sears shopper doesn't rush right out and buy Suse/RedHat/Xandros/Madriva, when Windows works "out of the box", not to mention they've already paid for windows, why pay for another OS.

First off, let's talk about those wonderful programs that Linux has (thankfully).

Windows uses Media Player. No plugins (generally required) for DVD's or most-not-all media. Linux uses Xmms, Kaffeine, or a myriad of others, all of which require plugins for some thing as simple as playing a DVD. Yea. I want to go through plugin hell just to play Blackhawk Down. No thanks. Insert Disc, press play works just fine for me.

More to the point of this though is that many of the programs that are available for Linux either are named in such a way that you would never guess what it does (D&D characters is not a naming convention for computer apps), or they are so poorly marketed that you can't tell what they are for. People respond to nice shiny websites ( http://ww2.nero.com/ that show precisely what the product does, complete with screenshots, and descriptions. SourceForge is a godsend, but let's be honest, that website wasn't designed to showcase your product. If I can't google it, and get a quality webpage showing your software and what it does, I generally won't bother trying to figure it out. I don't have the time to fiddle with crap. I need to see it, determine if it meets my needs and either download it or move on. If the download points me to sourceforge, thats cool, but your mainpage shouldn't be sourceforge.

Linux does not suffer from a lack of applications. If anything it suffers from too many applications that all do the same thing only someone wanted a purple button instead of a grey one and wrote a whole new interface/application to get it.

Application installation. Sure. Let me tar -xjvf that, then switch directories, and ./install.pl then answer questions about my kernel-headers, and where my C compiler is installed, then make sure I have ... yea. Try installing VMWare from the tgz. My wife can figure that out. With me sitting there "maybe". * Thank you whomever came up with apt. I love you guys.

Moving on. Setup. Yes Xandros is a breeze to install. It also costs money of you want to do anything with Active Directory. Many distro's are free but at what cost? Let's see, I have to recompile the kernel (yea, my wife will do that), if I want to suspend my laptop. I have to download kernel-headers (yea my wife knows what those are) to install mad-wifi to get my wireless to work. Let's not mention all the hoops you have to go through to get the configuration working properly. Oh and don't forget you need to modprobe some items before and after you suspend or else the machine simply won't resume properly. Along with all this though... try installing VMWare on Xandros (OC 3.02). It's almost funny. (BTW - Xandros People. Nice job guys. Seriously, keep up the good work.)

All in All, everyone should be capable of using Linux. Its all very simple. Assuming you know that /etc is not the same as /var which definitely does not hold the same stuff as /usr. Oh and don't forget that not all applications will be in /usr/bin, but some are in /root and others are in /usr/sbin. Let's not forget that you need to put the plugins in the programs /usr/bin/xxxx/plugins directory... or wait is that in /home/bill/xxxx/plugins? Do you want /fries/french or /fries/curly or maybe you want /home/fries/plugins/var/french. ./go/get/a/consortium/and/standardize/then/you/wil l/have/more/users.sh -install -directory /usr/bin/thanks/for/listening.

where's the Maya/3DS/LW/Softimage alternative? It doesn't exist (dont be a bone head and suggest Blender here, its like comaring a 79' VW to a Ferrai).

Maya Software Requirements

where's the video editing solutions? We have one decent one, but all with haggid no-useable interfaces (seen from a non-linux-fanboiii perspective).

Make it yourself (or find one, I don't do this myself).

Where's the DVD authoring software(i know about dvd-author, and the v.0.0.1 guis being made for it. From a desktop users perspective these are 100% useless atm)? Heck, where's the LEGAL dvd player to watch your newly mastered holyday vid?

NeroLINUX

Where's the CAD/CAM software?

CAD Programs for Linux

Where's the games?t

Like Doom III, Unreal Tournament, or loads of Windows games under Wine?

Maybe before you get in a tiff about Linux programs you should go check Google first.

Do you have the slightest idea of what you're saying? Of history? Really?

1. Apache is based on "httpd" which was the original NCSA server and open sourced back in 94/95. (I still have a floppy with the source on it somewhere - pity I don't have a floppy drive)

2. HTML rendering - yes, you're right - was commonplace before Gecko. But you may remember a small company called Spyglass who had a browser/renderer (also based on NCSA code) long before MS entered the ring and bought them out (for some piddling sum). MS then tarted up the UI a bit and released it as (drum roll) "Internet Explorer V1.0"

3. MP3 coding is a *standard*. Innovation? Yes. Proprietory? Hmm - depends a bit on your take, but I can still personally implement the thing in my garage if I choose to.

4, LAME? You mean lame.sourceforge.net? Ahh .... isn't that open source? How is it an example supporting your argument?

5. Photoshop? Doesn't that support open standards? Apart from the internal disk storage file format (which purely supports the application itself and offers nothing to the user) where is the innovation?

6. Office/OpenOffice. I really, really was under the impression that OpenOffice supports XML now, and XML is just a "real-soon-now" feature for Office. Sorry, sorry, sorry - I must make a better effort to keep up to date. Thanks for correcting me.

7. Nero?!?!? Nero????? (Picks self up off floor). You must be joking. What does Nero have to do with x264???

    Nero is a GUI for CD burning right? (I hope we're talking about the same thing - excuse me if we're not). x264 is a library for video streams. Different levels in the stack. Different purposes. Next you'll be criticizing Exxon for not making cars.

      And BTW - check out their website, particularly the link to the trial version of NeroLINUX. Seems they have no problem co-existing with open source. (http://www.nero.com/eng/download_demo.php)

Sorry, what was your point again?

By the way:

http://ww2.nero.com/us/NeroLINUX.html

http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/13/ 009200&from=rss

As the subject said, why do i have to pay for the windows version when i want the linux version?

Not sure, but they don't provide tech support for the Linux version either. Perhaps it's just not a "full" product to them? *shrug*

And why are there no screenshots?

Because you didn't look here ;)

There is no demo available, no screenshots, and you can't even buy it directly.

Here's one out of three... NeroLinux Screenshots

Bob

Except they don't. You need to enter the serial number of your store-bought windows version of nero-reloaded in order to be allowed to download it. If they were really serious about it they would allow NeroLINUX to be bought directly

Looks like they use both names, so either would be correct.

It seams that Nero Linux is some wired mixture of GTK1 and Gnome.

There's always gcursor, which I hear might be integrated into the theme dialog at some point. But honestly, how many normal users actually change their mouse cursors?

But could we please call Ahead Software by their name instead of calling the company Nero?

Look at the bottom of http://www.nero.com/. "Nero AG / Nero Inc." I'm guessing they incorporated under the Nero name as well when they realized that not many people actually know the company name.

What most people don't seem to realize is that this is a bad thing for commercial software on Linux. Nero's venture will fail, and other companies will be discouraged by it.

Utility applications like CD burning programs aren't hard to replicate, as there are a certain set of features that need to be implemented to satisfy almost all users. Most people need to burn audio and data CDs, and an emerging need is burning home movies onto DVDs. The first two have already been done by open source programs, and the third will be done eventually. From what I hear, Nero has more features that make it useful, but I don't think it provides enough marginal utility to be worth $100. Nero has succeeded in the Windows world largely due to their distributon deals with OEMs. However, their Linux product will not be profitable. The Linux version doesn't even have the extra features that make the Windows version attractive, but assuming that it eventually does, they won't be worth $100 to most people. The Linux version won't get them any extra distribution, and Linux users who buy CD burners already pay Nero money anyway. The extra effort spent on a Linux port won't be worth it, and they'll soon figure that out.

There is room for commercial software on Linux, but it has to be innovative software to succeed. There has to be something that the company continues to provide that hasn't been replicated by the eventual open source implementation of their product. Competing with free is possible, but not in Nero's case. Competing with Free is even harder.

Now having read the article, browsed the website and analysed the legal documents, I can see this software does not only seem inferior to cdrdao, but it is actually proprietary software with DRM. Click the EULA link after following the NeroLINUX link in the story before you pollute your Free and Open system with proprietary restrictions and Microsoft DRM. See the paragraph C-1-a:

C. TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLICABLE TO ALL LICENSES

I. Third Party Disclaimer and Limitations

a.) WM-DRM: Content providers are using the Microsoft digital rights management technology for Windows Media distributed with this Software ("WM-DRM") to protect the integrity of their content ("Secure Content") so that their intellectual property, including copyright, in such content is not misappropriated. Portions of this Software and other third party applications use WM-DRM to play Secure Content ("WM-DRM Software"). If the WM-DRM Software's security has been compromised, owners of Secure Content ("Secure Content Owners") may request that Microsoft revoke the WM-DRM Software's right to copy, display and/or play Secure Content. Revocation does not alter the WM-DRM Software's ability to play unprotected content. A list of revoked WM-DRM Software is sent to your computer whenever you download a license for Secure Content from the Internet. Microsoft may, in conjunction with such license, also download revocation lists onto your computer on behalf of Secure Content Owners. Secure Content Owners may also require you to upgrade some of the WM-DRM components distributed with this Software ("WM-DRM Upgrades") before accessing their content. When you attempt to play such content, WM-DRM Software built by Microsoft will notify you that a WM-DRM Upgrade is required and then ask for your consent before the WM-DRM Upgrade is downloaded. Non-Microsoft WM-DRM Software may do the same. If you decline the upgrade, you will not be able to access content that requires the WM-DRM Upgrade; however, you will still be able to access unprotected content and Secure Content that does not require the upgrade. WM-DRM features that access the Internet, such as acquiring new licenses and/or performing a required WM-DRM Upgrade, can be switched off. When these features are switched off, you will still be able to play Secure Content if you have a valid license for such content already stored on your computer. [emphasis added]

Just make sure you fully understand all of the implications before you put this trojan horse in the mouth. This is proprietary software with an EULA that uses "intellectual property" newspeak. This is always a bad sign. Such an agreement may be OK for typical ignorant Windows users or software "pirates" but is certainly unacceptable for any conscious GNU/Linux users, so please be bery careful. I would recommend sticking to cdrdao and cdrecord until this software is released under more reasonable conditions.

Now having read the article, browsed the website and analysed the legal documents, I can see this software does not only seem inferior to cdrdao, but it is actually proprietary software with DRM. Click the EULA link after following the NeroLINUX link in the story before you pollute your Free and Open system with proprietary restrictions and Microsoft DRM. See the paragraph C-1-a:

C. TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLICABLE TO ALL LICENSES

I. Third Party Disclaimer and Limitations

a.) WM-DRM: Content providers are using the Microsoft digital rights management technology for Windows Media distributed with this Software ("WM-DRM") to protect the integrity of their content ("Secure Content") so that their intellectual property, including copyright, in such content is not misappropriated. Portions of this Software and other third party applications use WM-DRM to play Secure Content ("WM-DRM Software"). If the WM-DRM Software's security has been compromised, owners of Secure Content ("Secure Content Owners") may request that Microsoft revoke the WM-DRM Software's right to copy, display and/or play Secure Content. Revocation does not alter the WM-DRM Software's ability to play unprotected content. A list of revoked WM-DRM Software is sent to your computer whenever you download a license for Secure Content from the Internet. Microsoft may, in conjunction with such license, also download revocation lists onto your computer on behalf of Secure Content Owners. Secure Content Owners may also require you to upgrade some of the WM-DRM components distributed with this Software ("WM-DRM Upgrades") before accessing their content. When you attempt to play such content, WM-DRM Software built by Microsoft will notify you that a WM-DRM Upgrade is required and then ask for your consent before the WM-DRM Upgrade is downloaded. Non-Microsoft WM-DRM Software may do the same. If you decline the upgrade, you will not be able to access content that requires the WM-DRM Upgrade; however, you will still be able to access unprotected content and Secure Content that does not require the upgrade. WM-DRM features that access the Internet, such as acquiring new licenses and/or performing a required WM-DRM Upgrade, can be switched off. When these features are switched off, you will still be able to play Secure Content if you have a valid license for such content already stored on your computer. [emphasis added]

Just make sure you fully understand all of the implications before you put this trojan horse in the mouth. This is proprietary software with an EULA that uses "intellectual property" newspeak. This is always a bad sign. Such an agreement may be OK for typical ignorant Windows users or software "pirates" but is certainly unacceptable for any conscious GNU/Linux users, so please be bery careful. I would recommend sticking to cdrdao and cdrecord until this software is released under more reasonable conditions.

Here

One of the PCs on my home network hosts a Ventrilo http://ventrilo.com/ server (very minor overhead.) My group of friends installed the small client software and connect to a password protect "chat" room.

Push-to-talk and voice-activated modes are offered. The client software offers enough options to (possibly) intimidate new users, but once configured it is as easy as it gets.

However, a previous post mentioned the use of AIM to communicate with troops overseas. Many IM clients are now integrating voice/video communication. I believe MSN offers voice and video, and I think AIM has voice as well.

For PC voice communication, I suggest using a decent mic in a fixed location as well as a pair of headphones. The new Logitech webcam I have offers cool face-tracking features as well as an integrated mic.

Question to all: anyone aware of a Windows VOIP app that integrates strong encryption?? I believe Nero's SIPPS http://www.nero.com/us/632232585951420.html/ offers this feature, but I'm looking for an Open Source product. Free would be nice. Anyone??

Thus, when H.264 encoders become availible

They've been available for some time...

NeroDigital
x264
VideoSoft
Moonlight
Sorenson
Reference encoder

And those are just off the top of my head.

"WMP support" is already available as there are several directshow splitters and decoders around. VideoLAN's support is almost complete, the only essential things it lacks are deblocking for b-frames and the new high profile stuff.

What are you talking about? H.264 (aka AVC) is an open standard. Apple is not the only one who implents this standard. In fact, Apple is quite slow. Here's a short list of available encoders:
Sorenson Squeeze 4, MainConcept H.264 Encoder, Nero Digital AVC, Hdot264, x264, etc....

And when you look how bad the quality of Apple's MPEG-4 ASP is (compared to XviD, DivX,...), I wouldn't bet that Apple AVC will be so great either.
If you want to encode on Mac I guess that Sorenson Squeeze 4 is currently the best sollution. According to the latest codec comparison on Doom9.net NeroDigital AVC is the best codec (Sorenson was not tested).

Among the goodies folks are finding is an undocumented one: A built in web server.

No, apparently not Apache but something else, what counts is it's there, it works, and it allows download of XML files containing show listings and the shows themselves. To get to it follow these steps:

1. Sign up for an early download of TiVo 7.1. Must have a Series 2, no DVD burner built-in (player is ok), DirecTV models aren't handled by TiVo. Basically TiVo Service Numbers beginning with 110, 130, 140, 230, 240, 264, 540, & 590.

2. While on TiVo's web site note your password and the "Media Access Key" (MAK) for your TiVo. You'll need these later.

3. Wait for 7.1 to be downloaded and installed on your machine. Continually forcing reconnects will not hurry this, indeed the cumulative server load by that sort of thing will only delay the rollout.

4. Once you've got 7.1 (it's downloaded, installed, you've rebooted) point a web browser at https://your.tivo's.ip.address/nowplaying/index.ht ml . For user supply tivo and the password is your "MAK".

5. Go wild.

Turns out you need to have TiVo's DirectShow decryption filter installed, and that only comes with their TiVo Desktop v.2 which is, for now, Windows 2K/XP only. You also need a decent mpeg2 codec, which MS doesn't include in Windows. TiVo recommends a couple of commercial ones but there are also free ones out there too. Or, you might have one that came with DVD software.

However, contrary to TiVo's marketing, once a .tivo file is pulled through this it can be edited, saved, even burned to DVD, with nothing more special needed. That's right, no waiting for Sonic's soon-to-be-shipped software, no magic mojo involved, trusty ole TMPGEnc and Nero and all the rest are perfectly fine. Indeed once passed through the magic DirectShow filter (and your password supplied) the .tivo files are free to be rendered into a more normal mpeg2 files.

Sure the $50 "custom" software will probably do more with automation, labeling, and such, but I'm betting nothing that can't be whipped up in a few days by TiVo's customers, likely beating the Sonic software to the punch.

Pretty Kewl, eh?

Use Nero together with their Burnrights utility.

HTH

Use Nero together with their Burnrights utility.

HTH

Although I've never used it before, Nero BackItUp appears to do what you're looking for. I've bought Ahead's software many times before, and their quality is fairly good. There's a trial version, too.

One word: Nero. [link updated]

Indeed...after the fiascoes that were Easy CD Creator 4 & 5, does anybody still use Roxio's CD-burning products anymore?